AN organised criminal who supplied vast quantities of Class A drugs across the Basildon area was snared by officers after using his encrypted chat network to post a selfie of himself on a boat.

Darren Stirling, 58, was identified as the man behind an EncroChat handle involved in the supply of cocaine, MDMA, cannabis and ketamine in Basildon.

EncroChat offered a secure mobile phone instant messaging service with 60,000 users worldwide and around 10,000 in the UK.

The primary use was for co-ordinating and planning criminal activities including the distribution of illicit commodities and money laundering.

Since 2016, international law enforcement agencies worked together to target EncroChat and in 2020 agencies in France and the Netherlands infiltrated the platform.

The intelligence gleaned through this operation was then shared via Europol to national law enforcement agencies.

Colleagues with the National Crime Agency provided Essex Police's Serious and Organised Crime Unit with Encro messages for a user active between April and June 2020, supplying Class A and B drugs in the Basildon area.

The messages reveal the user regularly chatted with other handles about the supply of cannabis, cocaine, ketamine and amphetamines.

Photographs were also exchanged, showing large quantities of cannabis, cocaine and suspected ketamine.

The chat logs showed the user was regularly active in purchasing and supplying large quantities of illicit substances up and down the country.

Helpfully, the user also sent photographs of himself on a boat, which he referred to as his primary residence in the Surrey area.

Drugs were pictured on encrypted chat.

In July 2020, officers executed warrants, including at the boat in question at Penton Hook Marina, Chertsey.

Stirling was found on the vessel and was immediately recognised by officers.

Also seized from the boat were a suspected encrypted mobile device, cannabis, hundreds of tablets and a signal jammer device.

A vehicle attributed to Stirling was traced to two self-storage units.

Inside one of the units, officers discovered more than ten million tablets – suspected to be diazepam due to the wrapping, but later found to be an antihistamine following testing.

A storage unit found by officers and linked to Stirling.

The messages attributed to Stirling showed his involvement in the supply of large quantities of cocaine, MDMA, amphetamines, cannabis and ketamine.

Following arrest, he admitted charges of being concerned in the supply of each substance.

Appearing at Westminster Crown Court on Monday, 20 November, he was jailed for a total of 18 years.

This encompassed a sentence of 13 years and six months for the Essex Police matters, and a four years and six months sentence for separate drug supply matters.

Detective Inspector Yoni Adler, of Essex Police's Serious and Organised Crime Unit, said:

"The cracking of the EncroChat network was a landmark moment in the fight against organised criminal activity across the UK.

"Criminals like Stirling felt able to let their guard down when using this network, feeling they could operate with impunity as they moved large amounts of harmful substances into Essex.

"The relentless work of our Serious and Organised Crime Unit, in collaboration with the National Crime Agency and other partners, proved him wrong.

"This was a complex investigation which involved building an irrefutable case against Stirling, leaving him with no choice but to admit to his leading role in a sophisticated drug supply network.

"The supply of these substances brings with it misery and exploitation.

"The wholesale supply of Class A and B drugs will inevitably result in the running of drugs on the streets further along the chain.

"The reality of illegal drug supply on the streets is the rampant exploitation of vulnerable people, often children, and violence.

"Our work to dismantle drug supply networks is ceaseless. Our message to those supplying these substances is simple: It is a matter of when, not if, you are caught."